Game of Thrones composer Ramin Djawadi teases symphony tour

HBO is taking the music of Westeros on tour, and Game of Thrones composer Ramin Djawadi says he can’t wait for fans to experience the show’s majestic score live.

Djawadi previewed the upcoming symphony tour at a fan event moderated by Isaac Hempstead Wright at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Palladium on Monday. Surrounded on stage by a Hall of Faces set, banners representing the series’ distinguished houses, and the Iron Throne Itself, Djawadi revealed that the idea for a musical tour sprouted during a studio session, where showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss and author George R.R. Martin was present.

“We’ve been working on it for a while,” Djawadi told EW. “So it just seemed now, after season 6, it was such a fantastic season, so we thought there’s a lot of material now to draw from.”

The 28-date tour will make its way across North America, appropriately next winter. A conceptual video of the proposed stage design shown to media depicted an ambitious stage featuring key Thrones locales, inspired by the spherical astrolabe in the show’s opening credits. The concept video showed the 360-degree stage with two giant platforms for Winterfell and King’s Landing, along with giant telescoping pillars at the ends that shift and move during the show to unveil new set designs. Mini platforms will represent smaller settings like Dorne and Meereen. The Iron Throne is the nucleus.

“We really want to summarize the show the best we can,” Djawadi told EW. “There’s a lot of different locations and events to cover. If you come and watch this concert, you really get a nice summary and a nice look back on the past seasons.”

At the fan event, an orchestra played a 15-minute set, including a rousing, faithful rendition of the theme, as well as the foreboding “Rains of Castamere” and more music from the series. “I think that’s what so great about Game of Thrones, that there is such a variety of music; the variety is what’s fun about it,” Djawadi said. “There’s a lot of preparation in getting all the little nuances right and all.”

Djawadi has yet to begin working on season 7 yet, but he’s eagerly anticipating his return to the road (he used to play in bands) and unleashing the arrangement for his season 6 opus. “The one I’m really excited about is ‘Light of the Seven,’ which was such a great surprise to the viewers, because it’s the first time we’re using piano,” he tells EW. “Besides the orchestra and the choir, we will have the piano and that piece to play. That’ll be really great live.”